عليل
“عليل” (ʿалииль) — the patient in Arabic. Noun, level A2. The sick one, mariid, you have met; ʿaliil is the one in the hospital, the patient. The nurse will say: the patient is waiting in the corridor. In a live sentence: “العليل ينتظر الطبيب في الممر” — The patient is waiting for the doctor in the corridor. Written with the characters ع, ل, ي, ل. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Arabic | عليل |
| Read in Latin letters | ʿалииль |
| Translation | the patient |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
The sick one, mariid, you have met; ʿaliil is the one in the hospital, the patient. The nurse will say: the patient is waiting in the corridor
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- العليل ينتظر الطبيب في الممرаль-ʿалииль йянтазир ат-табииб фи аль-мамаррThe patient is waiting for the doctor in the corridor
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “the patient” in Arabic?
«عليل», read “ʿалииль”. In a live sentence: “العليل ينتظر الطبيب في الممر” — The patient is waiting for the doctor in the corridor. Noun, level A2; written with the characters ع, ل, ي, ل.
How is “عليل” written in Latin letters?
ʿалииль. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The sick one, mariid, you have met; ʿaliil is the one in the hospital, the patient. The nurse will say: the patient is waiting in the corridor. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.